The Lord of the Plains (26 page)

Fanie (or Fann, more formally), Razra’s
older brother, peered out at her.

Riley looked at him.

Fanie looked at her.

‘Hello. Is Razra here?’ she asked.

He disappeared from the door without a word.
Riley managed to maintain her balance in the face of such
inexplicable behaviour. She had been exposed to Fanie before. He
did these sorts of things and it was nothing to get alarmed
about.

She didn’t have to wait too long however for
the door to open again, and it couldn’t have been more
different.

‘Riley!’ Razra greeted her with a grin,
flinging the door wide open.

She barely managed to say hello before he
dragged her inside.

‘What have you been learning? I haven’t seen
any gemengs in my classes. We’ve been doing really hard stuff, I
don’t think I want to be a researcher or go into medicine, they
have to do even harder stuff. You know there’s this library and we
have to go and read all this stuff? But it’s so small and they
don’t have many copies so we have to sign up with a schedule and we
can’t take things out of the library and…’

Riley was instantly put at ease as Razra
chattered on and on, and her fears he wouldn’t want to be her
friend anymore vanished.

The next six months progressed smoothly. She
saw Razra often on Restdays, sometimes they even met near the
military complex. Razra always asked lots of questions about the
military, though he rarely received any answers as he had a
tendency to ask his next question while Riley was still trying to
his answer his
first
question. Although Jillia was in the
military too, she was more difficult to stay in touch with. Riley
was maybe a little hurt by this, but then, it wasn’t unexpected.
She didn’t think it was because of a lack of time or difficulty
scheduling, but because most gemengs did not feel comfortable
around her, and Jillia’s family and friends were of course, all
gemengs. Riley hadn’t really thought much about this, the thought
had just bubbled up from somewhere, was noted, and then stored
again.

Aerlid eventually restarted her sword
training. With Aerlid’s help, her tips to her fellow gemengs
improved somewhat from ‘don’t do it wrong’ but they still weren’t
crystal clear either.

She found the theory interesting, though she
broke out in a cold sweat and had trouble focussing whenever Major
Berdis demonstrated any of the energy weapons.

Halfway through the year the theory section
was reduced by an hour and a half each day, during which time they
began using some of the weapons they had learnt about.

Today was the first day.

The class was split into exercise groups,
with one instructor per ten students, and sent to different rooms.
They were gathered in a room in a different part of the building to
where they learnt theory. The room was empty except for cupboards
and a stand. The stand had a large metal cube set up on it. The
cupboards were made of strong steel and were locked securely. There
were scorch marks on the walls.

Another fiery military man was waiting for
them. ‘I am Major Malais. I will be teaching you to use the weapons
you have been learning about for the past six months. You do
exactly as I say here. No warnings. You disobey, you’re out. Any
questions?’

‘No, sir!’

‘Good. You’re all familiar with the
Order-1?’

‘Yes, sir!’

‘Today we’ll start with loading, unloading
and basic maintenance. We won’t be firing any weapons today.’

‘Yes, sir!’

Malais walked through their small group and
unlocked one of the cupboards. ‘These weapons are unloaded.
Everyone, take one. There are drained charge canisters in the box
in the bottom of the cupboard, again, everybody take one.’

Everyone obeyed in an orderly manner.
Riley’s hands were shaking. Her shoulder ached. There was nothing
wrong with her shoulder but it ached all the same.

Malais locked the cupboard when they were
done and returned to the front of the room. He had an Order-1 in
his hands and a drained charge canister. He performed each task
first, explaining what he was doing. Then he asked them to do
it.

It wasn’t that hard. But Riley’s hands shook
and she was clumsy.

Malais came over to her. ‘Did you go through
testing?’

She nodded, ‘Yes, sir.’

He nodded, ‘I see. This is a normal
response. You’ll either deal with it or you won’t.’ and without any
other encouragement he moved onto the next student. He checked that
all the students were loading and unloading the Order-1 properly.
Then he told them to do it faster.

Riley swallowed. It was a weapon. Her sword
was a weapon. Her sword hadn’t sliced through her shoulder. She
closed her eyes, ignoring the other students. It was a weapon.
Aerlid had shown her many weapons. It wasn’t as if she’d never been
hurt before. But there’d been something different about the
testing. This thing didn’t call to her the way steel did. Still, it
was a weapon. She gritted her teeth and looked down at the cold,
ugly, blocky thing in her hands.

She loaded and unloaded. Her teeth clenched.
She did it again. Again.

When Malais called for them to pack away the
Order-1 and drained charge canisters Riley’s jaw was aching and she
had trouble unclenching her teeth.

Riley managed to control her shaking during
practice but when she arrived home it started again. Aerlid watched
in concern and tried to help, but while she continued to use the
human weapons there was little he could do.

And then shooting practice began.

‘Today we’ll start shooting practice.’ Major
Malais said. ‘You’ll go one at time. Keep your weapon pointed down,
only aim at that block over there. We’ll be using the lowest of the
low grades. If you
do
manage to shoot one of your
colleagues, you’ll give them a bit of a sting and you won’t be
joining us again for a while.’

First he went through the movement of
shooting, with unloaded weapons. Then they put all of the weapons
away, except for one. They then took turns trying to shoot the
block.

When it was her turn Riley’s head felt
strangely empty. She didn’t know if she was shaking or not. She
fired. Missed. Then it was over and that
thing
was out of
her hands. She moved to stand with the others who had already had
their turn. The shakes were back- or perhaps they had always been
there. She struggled to control them, not able to focus on anything
else.

Major Malais was talking.

‘This happens to be one of the more accurate
weapons you’ll ever be using.’ Malais said with a rather evil smirk
after everyone had tried. ‘Ok, start again from the beginning.
Three shots each time this round.’

As she waited in line she focussed on her
breathing. By the time it was her turn again she had control of
herself.

Then it was in her hands again and she was
meant to
shoot
it and her shoulder was burning and her head
was empty and she was going to faint… Breathe. Breathe. She
focussed on the block. She fired, missed.

Her stomach knotted up. How long would she
have to do this? She didn’t want to do this. She didn’t want to see
one of these things ever again.

They’ll keep making me do this, a clear
voice said in the back of her mind, they’ll keep making me do it.
Until I get it right.

Her mind cleared. A terrible clarity came to
her. Different to when she held a sword. So different. There was
that block. She had to shoot it for this to end.

Light arced across the room. It faded. Had
she hit? She focussed so hard on that block, but it was so marked
already. Had she hit?

‘Very good.’ a voice near her elbow said.
‘That’s a hit.’

Riley looked around. Major Malais was near
her, but she had trouble recognizing him.

‘I hit it?’

‘Yes, you did.’

But she wasn’t really talking to him. I hit
it. That was all she needed. She shoved the Order-1 into the hands
of the next person in line and left to stand with those already
finished.

But it wasn’t really over. They went round
and round and round. But she hit it first time from then on, every
time. So at least her contact with the weapon was minimized.

The shooting practice continued. Ten stands
were set up so all the students could practice at the same time,
denying Riley any escape in ability. After Malais was satisfied
with the progress of the class, they began shooting moving
targets.

The first time they all practiced at once,
Riley was nearly reduced to tears. She hit and hit and hit and it
didn’t end. Her shoulder throbbed madly. She thought her arm might
fall off.

Despite this she managed to control herself
during those lessons and get through them. The effort drained her
though, and every night she returned home too tired to go running
in the park.

Once Malais was satisfied with their use of
the Order-1 their lessons changed, and in a way it was easier for
her, as the new weapon did not resemble the weapon used on her in
the testing centre as much as the Order-1.

Malais seemed very happy with himself when
they all filed into the room that day. He had something in his
arms, hidden by heavy cloth.

‘Have you children heard of the Breaker?’
Malais asked.

‘No, sir.’

His smile widened. ‘Well, kids, that’s what
we’ll be working with for the rest of the year. If you can use the
breaker, you can use any handheld weapon we’ve got.’

He shifted whatever was in his hands into
one hand and used the other to pull the cloth off.

Riley stared at the monstrosity in his arms.
It was as long as his arm, and had all the grace and elegance of
cave mould.

‘Geggis, why don’t you come up here and give
it a try, hmm?’

Jann came forward apprehensively. When
Malais handed him the Breaker he struggled to hold it.